


Forget Me Not

by imagination_junkyard



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adrien Agreste Needs Help, Adrinette, Amnesia, Angst, F/M, Fluff, How Do I Tag, Identity Reveal, LadyNoir - Freeform, Lovesquare, Marichat, Oblivious Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Slow Burn, oh boy here we go - Freeform, probably a little bit of, this is my first post on ao3
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-09
Updated: 2019-10-09
Packaged: 2020-11-28 04:15:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,531
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20960318
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imagination_junkyard/pseuds/imagination_junkyard
Summary: It never should have happened. To her, it hadn't. To him? His whole world flipped upside down in a way he'd never forget.Seems like he didn't know his Lady as well as he thought.Identity reveal mishaps





	Forget Me Not

**Author's Note:**

> Alright folks, this is not the first fic I've ever written in my life, but it is the second fic in this fandom I've ever started (the first I will be posting later), and the first fic I've ever posted for the public to read, anywhere.  
My sister has told me I should have a lot written before I post but I've decided to finally ignore that advice lol, so the only promise I can make regarding updates is that it WILL be sporadic. I don't actually have a ton of plot planned out past the beginning and a few other things scattered throughout so I'll be making it up as I go for the most part.  
I actually started this like two years ago? I don't remember how much of the show was out then, so there will be references made to some episodes, and not others. As I continue writing there may be others, but if you read something and go, "Wait, if she referenced that episode, shouldn't this episode have already taken place too?" I'll raise my white flag in surrender and point at Thomas and repeat his claims that there's no canonical order.  
(Aka whatever episodes I see fit will have already happened as we go along.)  
Seeing as this is my first, I'd appreciate comments and feedback! Constructive criticism is welcome, and please point out any errors I make. I don't have a beta reader so this is just me having reread it like ten times.  
Without further ado, enjoy the read!

It never should have happened. The akuma attack happened right near the end of school and was an easy fight. It should have been quick and painless — head to an empty classroom, detransform, head out to gather her things and leave. But luck, for once, was not in her favor. Or maybe her partner’s bad luck had finally outweighed her own.

Marinette ducked behind the door as the final beep rang out and she could feel the pink magic that almost fizzled at her feet start to sweep up, releasing the transformation. With a bang, the door slammed open then closed as her black clad partner skid into the room, a green shimmer already encasing his legs. Her heart stuttered to a stop as everything seemed to go in slow motion. Chat Noir stumbled back with immediate panic paling his face as his stomach lurched, reaching a hand for the door but already too late, eyes widening at his mistake as the glow reached her middle. She gaped in return as the lights continued to flash over the boy in front of her, until Marinette and Adrien stood plainly in front of each other, frozen in place, Kwami’s ducking into their bags in habit.

Marinette couldn't comprehend what was in front of her. The sight of her crazy, dramatic Chat Noir replaced by the sight of mild, kind Adrien didn't want to connect. His hair had settled neatly into place, she realized blankly, and his eyes were... so normal. Of course she had never really thought that Chat Noir went around as a civilian with completely green cat eyes, but seeing it go from the eerie glow to Adrien's sweet green eyes was like watching a crazy plot twist in a movie that she knew she'd have to rewatch a few times to really put the pieces together. It made her head swim with tunnel vision, weighted legs keeping her glued to her spot as she stared.

Adrien, however, was processing everything at once, a million thoughts racing in his mind that left him drowning in the sight of his shocked classmate who looked so small and helpless compared to the way Ladybug usually held herself. His mind reeled that  _ this _ was how their identities were finally revealed to each other, a stupid mistake that wouldn't have happened if they didn't go to the same school or if she could have found the use for her Lucky Charm a few minutes earlier. He didn't know if he was happy that they finally knew or disappointed that it had come about this way. He always expected it to be more intimate, something special, and definitely a mutual agreement.

But there they stood, facing each other in a way that, while Adrien had yearned for, Ladybug had definitely not agreed to. Marinette had not agreed to. 

It was Adrien who spoke first, voice cracking meekly, “My- My Lady?”

Marinette’s response was a short screech before her mouth clamped shut and her feet started running, brain switching from 'Do Not Compute' to 'Panic and Flee'. She slipped past him in a flurry and bolted down the hallway, leaving the blond floundering in surprise for a moment before racing out the door after her and calling out her name — but she had already disappeared from his sight.

Try as she might, Marinette couldn’t completely wrap her brain around what had happened. All she knew was that she needed to get out of there, and fast. Her shoulder collided against someone and she tripped over her feet, stopping at the top of the stairs to spin around and give a quick, stuttering apology.

Chloé turned on her, eyes blazing in offense, “I can’t believe it! I am  _ so _ going to get a bruise from that! Watch where you’re going, you dolt!” As a punctuation to the end of her sharp words, she shoved Marinette roughly in the chest, sending the girl stumbling back, one foot hitting the empty air above a stair step. She reeled backwards, stomach dropping as she did, head smacking the edge of the stairs in a tumble to the bottom. For a moment, she laid there, dazed, head throbbing from impact. Even Chloé looked surprised, but as Marinette sat up with a groan, her face pinched back to annoyance.

“It’s your fault for running into me!” Chloé stomped off in the opposite direction as Marinette got to her feet, rubbing at the side of her head. She had half a mind to chase her down about her rude behavior, but that would mean going in the direction she came from and  _ oh god right getting out of here, now. _

Turning heel, she booked it out of school, hurrying home, only greeting her parents with a short hello as she beelined for her room, collapsing on her bed in a heap of tears from both shock and pain. 

Tikki zipped out of her bag, fretting over her holder.

“Marinette, are you ok?”

“I- I don’t know Tikki, I just-” a sharp pang cut off her words as she held her hands tighter around her head. “I just have a huge headache right now and I’m confused and I... I think I just need to sleep.”

Indeed, her head felt muddy with the recent events and she didn’t even want to try and connect the pieces just yet. Tomorrow, thankfully, was Saturday, so she had the entire weekend to sort it out.

“Alright then,” Tikki nuzzled Marinette’s cheek. “We can talk about it when you feel ready.”

She kicked off her shoes and pulled the covers over her head, limbs feeling heavy as a fuzzy black took over her.

Marinette woke up to her mother shaking her gently by the arm.

“Marinette? Marinette it’s almost noon!”

Marinette struggled to sit up. Opening her eyes to the morning sun felt like daggers and she whined, clapping hands over her face. The world felt blank and her head pounded, the motion of sitting upright making nausea rise in her throat.

“Marinette dear, are you alright? You look awfully pale.”

Her head swam as she cracked her eyes open, trying to focus on what her mom was saying.

“...What?”

“Are you ok?” her mother repeated.

“I...” she squinted, blinking a few times. “I don’t know, my head's killing me.”

Sabine touched her forehead in concern, “No fever... Why don’t you come down for breakfast? Maybe you just need something to eat. You didn’t even eat dinner last night! You must have been so tired. I could hardly wake you up, and then you just told me to let you sleep. Did something happen yesterday?”

Marinette got to her feet, stumbling a little, and her mother caught her arm.

“Yesterday?” her thoughts felt like molasses. What had happened yesterday? School... Uh. School? There wasn’t anything remarkable about that. She didn’t even remember going home and falling asleep. “I don’t think so.”

The two went downstairs and Marinette sat at the table while her mother headed to the kitchen, rubbing at her head. Everything seemed so bright.

Her father’s voice boomed good morning from the kitchen and she jumped with a squeak, the sound ringing in her ears, only making her head pound harder.

“Do you want milk with breakfast? Or would you rather have tea?” Tom called to her.

She stared at the grains in the table, the question floating away like something she couldn’t quite tether down and figure out a reply to.

“Marinette?” her father popped his head out of the kitchen, then rounded the table when he saw her vacant stare.

“Um...” she fought to remember what he had asked only moments prior. “What did you say?”

“Milk or tea?”

She furrowed her brow like it was the hardest question in the world. “Uh...”

“Honey, did something happen yesterday? You barely said hello,” Tom put a gentle hand on her shoulder.

“I did?” Laying her head on the table, she closed her eyes, tired. She just wanted to go back to sleep.

Sabine came out, croissant on a plate, looking back and forth between her husband and daughter, before setting the plate on the table in front of her. “Marinette, dear, try and eat something, see if it helps.”

Marinette nibbled on the food sluggishly, staring out at nothing. Her parents exchanged concerned glances as she suddenly stopped, closing her eyes with a grimace.

“I feel sick,” she said weakly, radio static filling her head.

Her parents sounded far away as they said something about taking her to the doctor. Her stomach twinged at that, but even those nerves felt distant. The process of helping her into her coat and getting shoes felt like a dream, and before long they were in a cab on the way to the hospital.

By the time they reached the doctor, Marinette was feeling slightly more alert and considerably more worried about the state she was in, but she still felt like she was moving through water and it was hard to stand without feeling like she would start swaying to the side. She struggled to answer the doctor’s questions, winced away at the light shone in her eyes, and where her coordination as her civilian self had never been great, the lack of it now seemed ridiculous. The examination stretched out, and finally, after a scan of her head, the result was decided.

“A concussion,” her doctor concluded. The bundle in Marinette's gut grew tighter, knuckles paling as she gripped the edge of her shirt. She didn't know what she had expected, but that certainly wasn't it. The words felt fake.

“A concussion?” Sabine repeated. “From what?”

“Marinette,” the doctor turned to her. “Do you remember falling down or bumping your head within the last few days?”

She considered the question for a long time, trying to rattle her thoughts in order. The last akuma attack had been all the way back on Tuesday, and she had made it through that fine— plus her abilities would have healed anything if something had happened. Otherwise, it had been a normal school week as far as she could remember. There was silence as she agonized over the details. She was such a clumsy person, but nothing stood out to her. Wednesday had been fairly normal. Thursday she had forgotten her homework but that wasn’t really unusual either. Friday...

Friday felt like a strangely smudged blob. She remembered going to school, but it was hard to grasp at the details, especially near the end of classes.

“I can’t really remember half of Friday,” she said slowly, looking up at the doctor, a bit of fear sinking into her stomach, chilling her limbs into a cool buzz of nerves. “It’s starts getting fuzzy right before school ended, and then I can’t... I can’t remember anything until maman woke me up this morning...”

“Why can’t she remember?” Sabine asked, worried eyes trained on her daughter.

“Sometimes, with a concussion,” her doctor explained with a soothing tone, “patients can experience a bit of memory loss around the time of the incident. They may not remember the events leading up to it. There’s nothing major on her scans, but I’d like to keep an eye on her overnight.”

Marinette was moved to a room and Sabine stayed with her daughter while Tom went back home to grab a few things for the hospital stay. When he returned with her phone, Marinette immediately texted her best friend Alya about the unexpected turn of events. 

**M: So I’m in the hospital with a concussion. It doesn’t seem like anything serious but they want me to stay overnight.**

The message took her a while to compose, but the reply was immediate.

**A: WHAT?!**

**A: WHAT HAPPENED?!**

**A: OH MY GOD MARINETTE ARE YOU OK??????**

**A: CAN I COME SEE YOU?!**

Marinette asked her parents if Alya could come to see her before slowly typing out her next reply, frustrated with how long it seemed to take her thumbs to find the right keys.

**M: It’s ok Alya!! They said I’ll probably be fine before Monday. You can come visit though. It’s kind of boring here.**

**A: on my way**

Not long later, Alya was perched on the end of Marinette’s hospital bed.

“You seriously can’t remember what happened?”

Marinette shrugged weakly, “It’s just... The end of classes and then it gets blurry... and then nothing. Maman and Papa said I got home in a hurry looking upset and ran upstairs to my room and went to sleep.”

“Do you think you got caught up in the akuma attack?”

“There was an akuma...?” Marinette squinted at her friend, trying to bring the memories of that afternoon to light. 

“Yeah, but... Ladybug fixes everything afterwards, right? So that can't be it,” Alya furrowed her brow. 

Marinette nodded in agreement, a small smile growing at Alya’s expression. It looked similar to the one she wore when she was studying people and comparing them to the masked heroes, trying to figure out who they could be behind the costume. 

“I bet it was Chloé’s fault!” Alya said decisively, smacking a fist on her other flat palm.

Marinette groaned, rolling her eyes, “Alya, not  _ everything _ is Chloé’s fault. You know what a clutz I am. I probably just slipped and fell.” 

“And ran home in tears? Girl, I don’t think so.”

Marinette laughed a little, “I didn’t say I ran home in tears. You’re being dramatic.”

“Hey, I’m not in the hospital over a ‘slip and fall’,” she teased. “Well, at least you can get out of homework for the weekend.” 

Sabine had called the school and explained the situation, and the doctor had said that she needed to rest over the weekend and not return to activities until she was symptom free - which meant nothing that involved a lot of concentration. That was fine by her. It was hard enough to even focus on the conversation with her friend. Alya had already had to repeat herself a few times with different things when it just didn’t seem to stick the first time.

The chatter slowed as Marinette got drowsy again. She was told she'd likely be more tired for a while, that it was good to get plenty of sleep, and Marinette welcomed it. If it could settle dull pressure around her head and ease her muddled mind, she would sleep as much as possible. Alya bid her goodbye and headed out so she could rest, wishing her a speedy recovery with hopes she'd be able to see her on Monday at school. 

The weekend passed slowly, and while the blankness of Friday nagged at her, it was decided Marinette could return to school on Monday, as long as she told the teachers if she started having any troubles or symptoms, assuring her it was ok if she couldn’t make a full day.

Marinette was hoping it would go smoothly — she didn’t want to make a big deal out of it and she certainly didn’t want her classmates knowing and worrying about her. She’d already made sure Alya wouldn’t tell anyone, so as long as the teachers didn’t say anything in front of the other students, she would be fine. 

Despite her protests, Alya swung by the bakery Monday morning to walk her to school.

“Alya, I told you already, I’m  _ fine _ now.”

“So I’m making sure you stay that way!” her best friend said firmly. “You know, if you weren’t so adamant about keeping this a secret, I bet you could earn yourself some extra concern and attention from Adrien.” She grinned and waggled her brows.

“I don’t want pity attention!” Marinette argued, although she couldn’t deny that having Adrien dote on her sounded pretty nice, but... “I don’t want to worry him either.”

The boy in question was already there when the two entered the classroom, and whatever he had been saying to Nino trailed off as he turned and spotted Marinette. His eyes widened and he jumped up from his seat. Marinette clutched onto Alya’s arm, giving her a startled look. Alya shook her head in bewilderment to assure her she hadn’t said anything to anyone.

“Marinette!” Adrien greeted, a strange mixture of nerves and excitement painting his face in a way she’d never seen before. Was it just her, or did he look a little flustered? 

“Could I talk to you for a moment before class starts? Alone?” He glanced at the doorway and Marinette yelped, turning red. Alya opened her mouth in shock, before a grin split her face, quickly abandoning Marinette to the conversation and sliding into her seat behind Nino, watching with eager interest. Nino spared a glance behind him in question and Alya shrugged. Nino shrugged back, and they both fixed their attention on their friends. 

“Ah- uh- um- I can’t talk! I mean- yes, we talk- er- talk we can- uh-!” Marinette’s hands flew around the air as she grabbed at random words and tried to stuff them into a functioning sentence.

Adrien nodded, and waved her out the door. She followed him robotically as he ducked into an empty hallway. Her shoulders burned where his hands landed as he looked at her in the eye with an intensity that threatened to cripple her. Was she dreaming? Had her concussion sent her into a state of temporary hallucinations? The usual softness in his green eyes was replaced with glimmer of determination and something she couldn’t read, an expression that itched in the back of her head as something familiar, but she felt like she'd never seen such an expression on his face before. 

“Marinette, we need to talk about what happened Friday.”

“F-F-Friday?” she squawked. Did he know what happened to her? Was he there for it?

He nodded rapidly, “It was a complete accident, and I’m really, really sorry!”

“Accident?” she repeated. Was it his fault somehow? “Sorry- what apologize are you- I mean- why are you apologizing?”

“You... aren’t mad?” relief washed over his expression.

“I- Why would I- You- I didn’t even talk to you Friday!” she finally managed. Not that she could remember aside from the usual flustered 'good morning', that is.

Now he looked utterly confused, “After school?”

“I...” she bit her lip. Oh dear god, had something happened with Adrien after school Friday? She had interacted with the love of her life and she  _ couldn’t remember it?! _ And whatever it was had him all upset and apologizing too!  _ What a time to knock yourself senseless, Marinette! _ She took a deep breath and launched into a hurried explanation. “I kind of sort of got a concussion somehow Friday and I don’t actually remember what happened most of that day so if something happened or I did something wrong I’m really sorry but I can’t remember!” Her eyes squeezed shut, face burning.

“A concussion?” Adrien murmured, grip relaxing on her shoulders before as his hands fell to his sides entirely, shoulders slumping. “You can’t remember Friday?”

She stared at the ground and shook her head no.

There was a long silence, and she dared to look up at him. His face seemed pale as he stared at the wall above her head.

“Um... what happened Friday?” Marinette gulped. He shook his head, blinking a few times, before a grin flashed across his features, making her heart thud in her chest.

“Nothing important! You were just in a hurry to leave school and I bumped into you and made you drop all your things on accident. You left in such a rush I thought it upset you,” he rubbed the back of his neck.

“M-M-Me?! N-No! I could never upset you! Er, be upset with you! You’re too amazing! I mean- nice- You’re nice! Too nice to be upset with!” her hands flapped around the air again and he took a step back. “Er, d-did I hit my head at all?”

“No, not at all! The only thing that fell was your bag and stuff,” he laughed, rubbing the back of his neck. 

“O-Oh, well, e-either way upset- I couldn't be upset with you!”

“That's good!” he chirped. “Sorry to have pulled you out of class over something so silly! We better head back before it starts.” 

She nodded and followed him back in, ignoring the daggers Chloé sent her way and settling next to Alya as the teacher came in and greeted the class, staring at the back of Adrien’s head in wonder. He was so worried he had upset her that he took her aside just to apologize over bumping into her? It reminded her of all the effort he put into clearing up that misunderstanding on his first day of school. She smiled dreamily. Adrien was the picture of perfection...

Alya jabbed her in the side, staring at her pointedly as the lesson started. Marinette scribbled what had happened in the corner of her notebook and turned it so Alya could see, who looked back up at Marinette with a sparkle in her eye as she mouthed,  _ oh my god! _ Marinette stifled a giggle, glad she had been well enough to make it to school that day.


End file.
